Two different perspectives on the winner Sunday of the BIESTs Sebastian Kienle & Andi Boecherer

IRONMAN European Championship, Frankfurt 2016.

BIESTMILCH was an official sponsor of this race, what an exaggerated honor… It was a glorious day and a sad one at the same time, this last Sunday, July 3, 2016.

To talk about the sunny side of life is pretty easy and the story people want to hear. But as this story has been told over and over again, since Sebastian Kienle and Andi Boecherer crossed the finish line last Sunday afternoon in Frankfurt, I won’t add to much of the same. You might presumably be bored.
Nevertheless, my team and I have to admit that we never before had such an intense media presence of our brand. BIESTMILCH’s BIEST on Sebi’s and Andi’s upper arm was on television and on the IRONMAN lifestream the whole race long as the boys were the unquestioned leading couple.

I am very close with both the boys since many years. Sebi and I celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, with Andi it is the 5th. Therefore races like the one from last week are pure excitement for me and my heart feels like being torn into bits and pieces.

Honestly, I am so glad that Sebi can not throw his self-doubts overboard. By regaining the title of a European Champion with a time of 07:52:43 makes him hopefully forget the 12 minutes he had lost on Jan Frodeno last year.

This win becomes even more precious, if you look at Andi’s race (07:53:40). He had never run a marathon faster than 2:55. This made Sebi imagine that his win was safe, when he left transition 2. But no way, Andi ran a 2:45:02 marathon, 10 minutes faster and better than ever. He was chasing Sebastian until to the very end. These 2 guys, both coached by Lubos Bilek since many years – congrats Lubos – do have guts. They are outstanding racers, fair towards other competitors and ruthless against themselves. They both have the ability to embrace the suck. Without that you cannot win races anymore nowadays!

Thanks boys for the great show!

The boys and the BIEST are the winners, but the power of BIESTMILCH was once and again left behind

This was the one side of the coin, the shiny one. Now a hasty glance on the scratched surface of the other side. I attend these races since 2002 and since then I take up a stance for Biestmilch, the substance, relentlessly trying to give this old natural remedy so highly appreciated by our ancestors a voice in today’s marketplaces.

With limited resources, with lots of ideas on the paths of trial and error I tried to develop a brand and with it a marketplace.

I am honored to have been working with the best of the sport: Lothar Leder, Chris McCormack, Sebastian Kienle, Andi Boecherer … I always knew that I need to be patient. But today after this incredible weekend after which you probably assume that BIESTMILCH became a winner too, I have to soberly state that after 14 years this is still not the case. As long as the media representatives who watched Andi taking a BIEST BOOSTER, are yelling enthusiastically: »He is biting into salt tablet«, or another quote: »There is company which makes bars in the shape of a ball« … as long as this is the case I’m still not where I want to be. How long might it take?
And all this happened even though, BIESTMILCH has been an official sponsor of IRONMAN Frankfurt. These observations make me sad and thoughts of giving up are difficult to avoid. Sorry guys, for this October blues mood. Do you think that small businesses have a chance to survive in the world dominated by giants?

By the way, I am well aware of the fact that advertising follows the dogma of happiness and being positive, and that I am hereby breaking all the rules I should adhere to. But don’t you think that this is advertising’s crucial immanent issue?